Nova Scotians wait over 500 ‘painful’ days for surgery consultations

Nova Scotians wait over 500 ‘painful’ days for surgery consultations

Consultation times for hip and knee replacements soar, exceeding shortened surgery waits

N.S. surgical wait time data masks growing backlog of waiting patients

More than 500 days after Bruce Erskine was referred for a hip replacement surgery consultation, he still hadn’t spoken to a surgeon.

When his family doctor referred him in January 2025, he told Erskine the whole process should take about 18 months. Erskine, who lives in Halifax, has already passed that mark, without receiving a date for surgery.

Stuck in limbo, Erskine’s mobility and quality of life have quickly deteriorated. The previously active 75-year-old can no longer walk without a cane or take his young grandson to places they once enjoyed together.

“It's painful, physically and psychologically, because you're just sort of left to wait,” Erskine said.

A Canadian Institute for Health Information report released in June found wait times for hip and knee replacement surgeries were the shortest ever recorded in Nova Scotia, and some of the shortest reported in Canada last year.

But that report tracks only the period from surgical consultation to surgery date, and doesn’t measure the wait from referral to consulting a surgeon.

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When the consultation and surgery wait times are combined, the total waits for hip and knee replacements in Nova Scotia are longer than they were a decade ago. In 2015, Nova Scotians could expect a total median wait of 265 days for a hip replacement — in 2025, it was 292 days.

Dr. Jhase Sniderman, an orthopedic surgeon at Dartmouth General Hospital, told CBC News in July that longer consultation waits leave patients with more pain and worse function.

“That has an impact on the rest of your health,” he said. “If you can't move around or walk, your muscles deteriorate. It's not good for your cardiovascular health either.”

Over the last decade, the median wait for a hip replacement consultation more than doubled, from 92 to 189 days. This increase erased progress made by shortening surgical wait times, which fell from 173 to 103 days over the same period.

Cathy Lynn Howley, a director of the Nova Scotia Health perioperative care network, said the reduced surgery wait times are a “real and significant improvement,” despite the total wait time growing worse.

“The progress that we're seeing in surgical access wait times is important, but it doesn't diminish the experience of someone who's still waiting months to see a surgeon,” she said. “And that's why we're broadening our focus to the entire patient journey.”

She said Nova Scotia Health needs to focus on improving consultation wait times, which are “too long” in some areas.

Nova Scotia’s rapidly growing and aging population likely contributed to longer consultation wait times, according to Howley. Despite surgeons in the province performing more hip replacements last year than any year on record, a surge in patients requiring orthopedic surgeries might be causing consultation backlogs.

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Patients who spoke to CBC News reported worsening pain and deteriorating health while waiting for consultations.

Like Erskine, Monika Lalonde from Falmouth, N.S., has waited about 500 days for a hip replacement consultation. Unlike Erskine, who was assessed by a surgeon in June after a last-minute cancellation, Lalonde still doesn’t have a consultation appointment, never mind a surgery date.

“It's hard,” said Lalonde, who was previously told she would see a surgeon this summer. “In the meantime, pain has increased. My mobility's gone down to almost nothing. It's just gotten steadily worse.”

Golfing, gardening and dancing were once mainstays in Lalonde’s routine. Now, she says walking, bathing and getting dressed are difficult.

“I am 77 and realistically do not have many years left of my life, so it is a shame to spend them this way.”

The province’s new centralized booking system, which Howley partly credits for improving surgery waits, could help shorten consultation limbo. Over the last decade, the province has also opened orthopedic assessment clinics to help patients manage their pain while waiting for consultations.

Howley declined to disclose if Nova Scotia Health has an established plan to ease consultation waits.